He’d left one wife to die while he was off at sea. He’d never leave another.
If only he could convince Jake of that fact.
Kit spoke up. “I don’t see why you’re worrying, Captain. She loves the Sea Wolf. I don’t think she’d ever tell who you really are, so what does it matter if she writes her story?”
Morgan took a deep breath. “Serenity only knows that the Sea Wolf was a blockade runner during the war and that he now frees impressed sailors. What she doesn’t know is who I really am.”
“No,” Jake corrected. “She doesn’t know who we really are.”
Jake looked back to where Serenity sat next to Ushakii. “The day she learns that, Drake, I’m going to cut her throat, and you won’t be able to stop me.”
Chapter 7
By noon the sky had turned a dark, ferocious gray. The winds whipping around Serenity felt like giant hands trying to pull her in different directions. The ship pitched, sailing over the water like a stone skimming the surface, and every time it hit the ocean, it jarred her to her bones.
“All right, men,” Morgan shouted above the howling winds. “Batten down.”
He moved to stand by her side. “And that also means you, Miss James. I need you to go below deck before you get swept overboard.”
She looked over the side at the swelling waves that appeared to be nearly the size of the boat. “Since this doesn’t appear to be swimming season, I tend to agree,” she said.
Morgan guided her across the deck with one firm, strong hand at her spine. She had learned from talking to several crewmen that this was what had kept Morgan and Jake busy all day—discussing the storm and how best to deal with it.
It didn’t take them long to reach Morgan’s cabin. “Will the ship hold up?” she asked, her voice cracking from nervousness.
He nodded, and she saw the concern deep in his brown eyes. “We’ll be fine. I’ve seen much worse.”
She tried to be strong. Really she did, but the sudden reality of what could happen to them hit her full force. “The Willowood went down this time last year,” she whispered. “They were just miles off Savannah’s coast when they sank from a hurricane. Pieces of the lifeboats washed ashore, but no one ever found a body.” She swallowed. “Ever.”
Morgan took her hand in his and gave a comforting squeeze. “Don’t light a lantern, and stay in the bunk, and I promise you you’ll be fine.”
She gave a half laugh. “Do you always make promises you can’t keep?”
Against all his better judgment, Morgan took her in his arms and held her tightly against him. She shook in his arms, and if the truth were known, so did he, only the tremors of his body weren’t from fear. They stemmed from the demanding ache that throbbed through him for the warmth of her body. I could make you forget your fear.
If only he could.
“Believe me, Serenity, if there’s one thing I know, it’s how to survive.”
“Then I shall trust you, Captain Drake. And I must say that I shall be terribly disappointed if you’re wrong.”
He laughed at her humor. “I’ll be back to check on you as soon as I can.”
Reluctantly Serenity let go of him and watched him leave. She took a deep breath to fortify her courage.
Oh, who are you fooling? she asked herself. You’re scared witless.
Who wouldn’t be?
Her teeth chattering from her raw nerves, she headed for the bunk and took a seat. She had barely secured herself when the door to the cabin opened.
Barney poked his balding head in and grinned at her. “Scared, are ye?”
“Terrified,” she answered honestly.
“That’s what the captain said, so I thought me and Pesty would come down here and see if we could help you any.” He entered the cabin with a…well, it looked like a bird that had been plucked clean for dinner.
Only a few feathers remained on the poor creature. “I take it the bird is Pesty?” she asked.
“Aye. I got her back in…” He frowned and stroked his chin as if trying to recall a specific year. “Well, it was a while back, to be sure. Probably before you were born, now that I think about it. I was on the Merry Tide back then, and we used to ship all kinds of exotic birds to England for them rich folks to buy.”
He pulled a chair up to sit beside the bunk. Pesty shifted her bare wings and made a quick squawk. “Butter beans, butter beans,” the bird said.
“Sh,” Barney snapped, then raised a gentle hand to touch her head. “I’m telling a story.”
The bird shifted on his shoulder. “Story. Story. Whale of a tale.”
Serenity pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at the bird.
Barney smiled warmly. “What can I say? She keeps me in line.”
Pesty bobbed her head up and down. “In line. In line. In line and over the side, mate.”
“It was nice of them to let you keep her,” Serenity said.
“Oh, they didn’t let me,” Barney said hastily. “She caught some kind of sickness and the captain ordered me to kill her. But she was such a helpless little thing that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I took her to my cuddy and kept her safe. She’s been with me ever since.”
Lightning flashed, illuminating the cabin. Serenity gasped in sudden alarm.
“It’s all right, lass,” Barney offered in comfort.
Rain started falling, hammering a fierce tattoo against the boat. The lanterns in the room jingled and clanked as the ship tossed about. One chair skidded across the room and bumped against the far side.
“The trick is not to think about it,” Barney told her.
She swallowed, trying not to think about how far away land was, and the fact that she didn’t know how to swim. “H-how do you do that?”
“Me,” Barney said, puffing his chest out. “I just sing. ’Course, the songs I know aren’t fittin’ for a lady to sing. But you probably know a few.”
The ship rolled and pitched. Her stomach heaved. “I feel sick.”
“Now, don’t be getting sick in the captain’s bed,” Barney said, getting up quickly. “He won’t like that none at all.” He crossed the room and grabbed the washbasin out of the cabinet. “You feel the urge, you use this.”
She grabbed on to it tightly and just nodded.
“Ahoy, mate,” Pesty chimed.
A sharp lurch almost sent Serenity off the bed. Oblivious to the vicious bucks of the ship, Barney took her hand and placed it in a small niche carved just over the bunk. “That’s a grab rail. You hang on to it and it’ll keep you in place.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, her stomach churning even more. At the moment, she was more frightened than she had ever been in her life.
Deep inside, she wanted to run away, to find some safe corner of the ship where no harm could befall her. But that was useless and she knew it. There was no safety at sea. The only thing that stood between her and death was nothing more than flimsy pieces of wood that could split apart at any moment and send her to the bottom of the ocean!
Serenity licked her dry lips. “How did you meet Captain Drake?” she asked, hoping it was a long story.
“I met Morgan when he was just a boy. I guess he was about thirteen back then.” He smiled fondly, reminding her of a father who was thinking of his favored son. “Ah, he was tall and strong and honest. A good boy to his very core.”
“What made him join the navy?”
His smile died and anger darkened his face. “He didn’t join willingly. That bastard—Isaiah Winston—had done gone and sold the poor boy off to the British navy. I’d been impressed about a year afore that. Not that it mattered to me back then. Being at sea’s all that I cared about. Didn’t matter what ship I sailed on. But it mattered to Morgan.”
Serenity took deep gulping breaths and tried to steady herself. “Why did the man sell him to the navy? Was he his father?”
“Nay, lass. Winston was no father, just an evil bastard through and through. He’d been the
business partner of the captain’s father. And when the boy’s father died, Winston didn’t want no responsibility for him. He wanted profits, humanity be damned.”
Serenity knew the type of man all too well. And she despised such people. “You helped Morgan fit in?” she asked, changing the topic before she made Barney so mad he’d leave her.
“Well,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I tried, but you got to understand, Morgan has a mind of his own. His own way of doing things. He has an order he expects everything and everyone to follow, and when someone gets out of line, it knocks him off keel. Those Brits don’t follow that order. And Morgan was always too much of a fighter for his own good. If he thought he was right, he’d wrestle a den full of lions and not stop until they either killed him, or he had ’em tamed.”
Barney shook his head. “Of course, it didn’t help none that Morgan was terrified for his sister.”
“His sister?”
Morgan had a sister?
“Aye, Penelope. She was a small slip of a thing. Pretty and gentle as any fawn ever born.”
“Where is she?”
The light faded from his eyes. “Dead. She died about fifteen years ago.” Barney stroked Pesty’s head. “She was just about twelve at the time their father died. Morgan was afraid Winston would be using her in wrong ways or be selling her off to a whore…” He cleared his throat and bowed his head in embarrassment. “A place young girls shouldn’t be.”
Serenity frowned at his words. “Where was their mother?”
“She’d gone on to Mermaid’s Paradise as well.”
“Mermaid’s what?”
“She was dead, too, lass,” he said gently. “Morgan’s mother died of a fever when Morgan was eight.”
Her throat tight, Serenity couldn’t imagine how horrible it must have been for them to find themselves without parents. Her mother’s death had been one of the hardest things she’d ever had to face. Even nine years later, she missed her mother so much it hurt.
What would it be like to lose her entire family?
She couldn’t even imagine it.
“Poor Morgan.”
“Aye,” Barney agreed. “It was a hard time for the captain, not knowing where his sister was. If she was safe.”
“Didn’t they have any family who could help?” she asked.
Barney shook his head. “His father had been a British lord who lost his title and had come to America to make his way. The only family they had was back in England. Winston swore to Morgan’s father that he would send Morgan and Penelope back to England if anything should happen to him.”
“And Winston betrayed them.”
“Aye. In more ways than one.” His look turned dark, murderous. “I was with Morgan the day he found out that his father hadn’t died in an accident like Winston had said. The old bast—” He cleared his throat again. “Winston killed Morgan’s father.”
Serenity’s mouth dropped at his declaration. Morgan’s father had been murdered? “Why did he kill him?”
“Greed. Winston wanted the shipping company for himself. Morgan’s father wouldn’t let him trade slaves. During one of their fights over the matter, Winston stabbed him.”
Serenity shook her head in disbelief. How could anyone do such a thing?
“What did Morgan do when he found out?” she asked.
“He swore he’d tear out Winston’s heart.”
She took a deep breath, knowing that if someone had killed her father, she’d demand no less. “Did he?”
Barney stroked Pesty’s neck. “Well, life has a way of getting in the way of what we want most. It took Morgan three years before he was able to escape the navy and have a hope of ever finding Winston or Penelope.”
Serenity leaned forward, entranced. Morgan had escaped the navy? This sounded like her fictitious hero.
“What did he do? How did he escape?”
Barney shifted in his chair and glanced to the door as if afraid Morgan would overhear him. “One night when we was docked in Jamaica, he skipped off the boat in the dead of night and vanished.”
Ooo, definitely something her hero would have done. How exciting!
“Where did he go?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. He wanted me to go with him, but I was afraid of being caught and hanged, so he took off alone. I didn’t see him again for, oh, six, seven years. By then he was his own captain and he was preying on Winston’s ships. Said he’d hit the old bas—man where it hurt most, in his pockets. And when he wasn’t going after him, he was going after the Brits.”
“And what of Penelope?” she asked.
His shoulders slumped. “It took Morgan a long time to find her again.”
By the look on his face, she knew what had happened. “Winston had put her in a bordello?”
Barney stiffened and gave her a withering glare. “It ain’t fittin’ for a woman to know such a word.”
Adequately chastised, she whispered a quiet, “Sorry.”
After giving her a fatherly scowl, Barney continued. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Morgan. I wasn’t there when he found Penelope, but I know how much she meant to him. It’s probably a good thing he couldn’t find Winston right away, ’cause I’m sure he would have killed him with his bare hands.”
Not that she would blame Morgan for the killing. Indeed, a man like that should be horsewhipped!
“Where was Winston?”
“Butter beans, butter beans!” the bird demanded.
“Sh,” Barney soothed. “I’ll feed you in a bit.” He repositioned Pesty on his shoulder. “Winston had caught word that Morgan was coming for him, and he took off. No one knew where he was. So, Morgan got his sister and took her to an island to watch over her. It was there she died.”
“And Winston?”
“Morgan caught up with him about a year after her death. He’d already ruined the man financially, and he came damn near to killing him.”
“But he didn’t?” she asked incredulously.
“Just as Morgan was about to finish him off, he realized the worst thing would be to leave Winston to his duns. But as he turned away, Winston came at him, and in the fight, Winston was killed.”
They fell silent for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts, while the winds howled and the ship tossed. Lightning flashed again, and Pesty demanded more butter beans.
Serenity looked up at the ceiling, wondering where Morgan was now. He’d had such a hard life. And he’d lived it virtually alone. It was such a pity that a man so noble and kind had no one to love him.
And she wondered if a man who had lost everyone he held dear could ever love someone again.
Jake and Morgan stood at the helm, trying to stay on course in the midst of the storm. Of course, without the stars, and being buffeted around, it was impossible.
“Why don’t you go below and rest,” Jake shouted. “I’ll take the first watch.”
“I’m the captain, I should take the first watch!”
Jake laughed. “Which means the crew doesn’t need you to go sailing overboard. Besides, Morgan, you don’t want to leave me on your ship without you. You know what I’ll do with her.”
In spite of the seriousness, Morgan smiled. “All right. I’ll be back up in an hour to replace you.”
“Just bring me a bottle of rum when you do.”
Nodding, Morgan made his way below deck. His ears roared from the winds and he felt chilled to his bones.
His limbs heavy, he opened the door to his cabin.
Serenity looked up and gasped as Barney broke off his storytelling. Morgan stood in the doorway, his hair and clothes plastered to his body as he dripped his way across the cabin. He had his teeth clenched and she was sure he was freezing.
Acting without thought, she scooped the quilt off the bed and threw it around his shoulders.
“You take care of him, lass,” Barney said, jumping to his feet, “while I go get some food and ale.”
“My goodness, Ca
ptain,” Serenity said in awe. “You look like you’ve battled Poseidon himself.”
Morgan didn’t say anything as she led him to sit in Barney’s vacated chair.
“Don’t try and talk,” Serenity said as she left him to go searching through his trunk. “I’ll get you some clothes and we’ll have you dried off in just a minute.”
She pulled out a dry pair of pants, a shirt, and a jacket. As she returned to him, he was toweling off his hair with a corner of the quilt. “I feel like I’ve battled Poseidon,” he said, his voice hoarse.
His hair was free from its queue. Damp and tousled, he reminded her of an impish child. Only his stern features and countenance were those a man who had lived a hard life.
“We have to get you out of those clothes before you catch a chill.” She helped him peel his jacket off, and it wasn’t until he’d pulled his sodden shirt over his head that it occurred to her that she was undressing a man.
A magnificent man.
A man whose muscles rippled like a refined symphony under wet, bronze flesh. Spectacular muscles that hypnotized her and made her breathless.
Her mouth suddenly dry, she could do nothing but stare.
Morgan reached for the dry shirt she held in her hands, then made the mistake of looking at her face. Hunger, raw and wicked, burned in the blue depths of her eyes.
Instantly his body, in spite of the cold, came to life, and he remembered only too well the taste of her lips. Of her breath. The feel of her hands fisted against his back.
Without thinking, he reached for her.
“Here’s the food.” Barney’s voice shattered the quiet as he threw open the door.
Serenity blinked, her cheeks instantly warming. Good gracious, what had almost happened?
Had she almost allowed a half-naked man to kiss her?
Aye, you did.
Another instant and she might have even let him go on and…
Nay, she argued with herself, you’re far too respectable to do something like that.
Or was she?